Rebirth: Different Way [(重生) 殊途]

Chapter 18

"Get in!" The two simple words were like a voice from heaven to Shen Xi, devastated by the rainstorm.

Shen Xi was about to get up instinctively but when he saw the driver clearly, he hesitated. It was not Lao K but Li Mingxuan who called him to get in the car.

Shen Xi did not move.

Li Mingxuan thought that thunder was too loud and Shen Xi hadn't heard his words, so he shouted again, "Get in!"

With this shout, Li Mingxuan clearly saw Shen Xi's hesitation. Glancing at the heavy rain outside, Li Mingxuan said nothing, opened the car door and jogged towards Shen Xi in the rain.

The moment he touched Shen Xi, his hand felt cold. With a slight effort, Li Mingxuan pulled Shen Xi up and rushed to the car in a few steps to shove Shen Xi in.

Li Mingxuan's action was so fast that before Shen Xi could react, he was already sitting in the car. In an instant, Li Mingxuan neatly bypassed the front of the car, opened the door and sat beside Shen Xi.

Shen Xi's brow furrowed slightly; he was about to say thank you when a clean jacket was handed over to him.

"Take off your shirt and change into this, be careful not to catch a cold."

Hearing unquestionable concern in this low magnetic voice, Shen Xi hesitantly glanced at Li Mingxuan and took the jacket as he was told.

Seeing this, Li Mingxuan could only let out a silent sigh.

At first he was a bit angry, planning to ask Shen Xi why he refused to get in the car, but when he saw Shen Xi's current appearance, his anger disappeared. Perhaps because he had been trapped in the rain for too long, Shen Xi looked miserable at this moment, drenched from head to toe, and his face was even paler than usual, but there was still the aura of rejection around him, as if he was a thousand miles away. For some reason, Shen Xi's appearance reminded Li Mingxuan of a puppy he had seen not long ago.

It was a rather pretty little golden retriever, and it was a rainy day when Li Mingxuan saw it. Under the pouring rain, the little golden retriever was wet all over and was lying on the side of the road shivering. Mingfei, who was sitting in the back of the car, felt sorry for it and wanted to take it home. But no matter how Mingfei tried to entice it, the little golden retriever refused to come near them and looked at them warily. Eventually Mingfei had to give up in desperation. As they drove away, Li Mingxuan looked out of the car window and saw the little golden retriever shrinking into a ball, deeply alienated from all the humans around him who tried to get close to it.

Mingfei was sure that the puppy must have experienced abandonment by its owner to become so wary and detached from humans.

So what had Shen Xi experienced to make him wary and alienated?

When Li Mingxuan thought about it, his heart softened.

Speaking of which, Li Mingxuan now had very mixed feelings about Shen Xi. In the past twenty years or so, Shen Xi had been a stranger related by blood to Li Mingxuan. He was the younger brother that Shen Ji didn't want to talk about, he was the fop who caused trouble according to Shen Cheng, he was the nephew that his mother felt guilty about, and he was an outcast by default for the entire Shen family, including the Li family.

But all that started changing when he met Shen Xi on the plane back to China.

Perhaps because the two had spent more time together in this period than in the previous twenty years, Shen Xi in Li Mingxuan's eyes was no longer just a name or a topic of conversation of other people, but a living person.

Shen Xi would laugh, he would be aggrieved, he would pretend to be strong, and he would get drunk late at night alone. Every time Li Mingxuan met Shen Xi, he got to know him better. He could no longer be indifferent to Shen Xi as he used to be and turn a blind eye to Shen Xi's affairs.